PRAYER FLIP BOOK
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Graphic Design
& Illustration
2022
FROM PROBLEM
TO DESIGN
Our Process
In February 2022, Marion Design Co. partnered with Grace Woodard (former MDCO alumni) and Discipleship by Design to create a custom prayer flip book for OptIN, a ministry of Scottsboro Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The prayer flip book allows readers to make new connections as they engage more thoughtfully in their prayer lives.
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Led by Revs. Brian and Micaiah Tanck, OptIN is a ministry of Scottsboro Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Scottsboro, Alabama. OptIN seeks to serve as a trade school for church-related training and faith development. Discipleship by Design LLC uses original design thinking tools to spread the gospel and empower churches to respond to the ever-changing culture around them.
When the Marion Design Co. team met with Brian Tanck in early February, he described prayer as being like a hammer, a practical tool that can have powerful results. The prayer flip book set out to help people rediscover that important tool and to see prayer in a new light.
Each page in the prayer flip book is cut into thirds, so that readers can turn any portion of the divided page and create a mix-and-match effect. The three sections depict different postures of prayer, images of God, and famous prayers spoken by faith leaders throughout history.
refreshWe wanted the prayer flip book to dispel the idea of prayer as stale or boring.
connect
The prayer flip book’s interactive design needed to encourage new connections between prayers, postures, and ideas.
reflect
The illustrations within the prayer flip book had to represent the diverse audience who would interact with it.
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Each page in the prayer flip book is cut into thirds, so that readers can turn any portion of the divided page and create a mix-and-match effect. The three sections depict different postures of prayer, images of God, and famous prayers spoken by faith leaders throughout history.
After meeting with Brian, our team began developing a list of postures, images, and prayers to include. We assembled a mood board for the project, drawing on the primary colors and earthy tones of both classical iconography and modern art. It felt important to incorporate both the color palette of the OptIN logo as well as the warmth and energy we hoped to bring to the idea of prayer. Next, our team moved onto making preliminary sketches, value studies, and finally, the completed renderings of the book’s illustrations.
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The final prayer flip book contains 10 fully-illustrated pages, each able to be flipped in three different places. As the reader turns the pages, fascinating juxtapositions come to light — like the image of the Crucified Christ alongside a person raising hands to the sky, or the image of the Dove of Pentecost alongside a posture of clenched fists.
The vivid illustrations draw the reader into the stories evoked by each image of God. They also serve as a visual demonstration of how to place oneself in each posture of prayer. Together with the text of prayers spoken by famous faith leaders, from Origen to Henri Nouwen, these illustrations bring the practice of prayer to life in a new way. Finally, they reflect the diversity of the Kingdom of God, as the designs feature characters of a variety of ages and ethnicities.
The prayer flip book is now available for sale on the OptIN website. To learn about another collaboration between OptIN and Marion Design Co., read our case study on the OptIN Kids Design Thinking Session.
